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Kantian Ethics

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This essay will discuss the ethics involved in the government review of National Drug Policy where according to the New Zealand Herald, Peter Dunne is proposing to “take a health, rather than criminal, approach to drugs” (March 30th 2016). The government is to review the current punitive approach taken to drug offending as studies show that this approach is unsuccessful and “does more harm than good”. I will use Kantian ethics and the ethics of Social Contract to discuss the moral aspects of decriminalizing drugs.

Kant’s categorical imperative: “act so as to treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always as an end in itself, and never as a mere means only”. According to Lewis M (Duties to Oneself and the …show more content…

So just looking at this part of the theory it could be argued that Kant would be against Peter Dunne and want him to stand strong with the criminal approach to drugs. On the other hand, Kantian ethics can also imply that we should be careful about laws that aim to protect people from themselves and let people make their own decisions (Rachels J & Rachels S, 2015 p140). To create a law that stops people doing something that they desire to do is a breach of Kantian ethics in the first place. It restricts the freedoms of people in a way that is actually detrimental to the intended purpose of the law. The whole point in making certain drugs illegal is that they are addictive and dangerous to a person's health. In juxtaposition to this governments still allow big pharmaceutical companies to produce and sell drugs legally to the public under the guise of them being good for your health. In reality these legal drugs can be just as addictive and dangerous to your health as illegal drugs, in some cases even more …show more content…

Retrieved from http://www.Nationalpainreport.com

Lewis M, Duties to oneself and the morality of drug use (2012 November 30th). Retrieved from https://repugnantconclusions.wordpress.com

Peter Dunne takes health, rather than criminal, approach to drugs (2016 March 20th) The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz

Rachels J and Rachels S, (2015), The Elements of Moral Philosophy McGaw Hill Education, Eighth Edition

Scoring drugs (2010 November 2nd) The Economist on Line. Retrieved from

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